🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had publicly claimed to have not heard of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of family money to resolve a protracted court action.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were printed in public records: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a space or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when respect and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously indecisive king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are considered essential, despite the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.